It is through him that you now believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, so that you would fasten your faith and hope in God alone. 1 Peter 1:21
The Passion Translation
I found it interesting the emphasis that TPT put on the word “alone.” It stood out to me in a world where it’s so easy to get caught up in so many things. Getting distracted is almost a requirement to living. It’s as if we expect to be distracted and seek out distraction.
However, we are supposed to give our all to God. We are supposed to put our faith and hope in God only. We are to worship God only. But, is this what most people practice? If we’re honest, no.
When we “want what we want and want it now,” we ignore the fact that we give our time, attention, and heart to other things. There are two sure fire ways to identify if you are worshipping something other than God.
- If you lie to get your way and what you want
- If you refuse to listen to others and get angry when they express concern
I urge you, take a minute right now. Just stop, be still, and examine yourself. Be painfully honest with yourself. Do the two things listed above describe you? What causes you to act that way? It’s better to be painfully honest now than to be embarrassed before the Lord in the future.
I’m going to continue with the assumption you were faithful in taking the time to examine yourself. What did you find? Are you surprised? Don’t be discouraged if you didn’t like what you found. The process isn’t finished.
The next step involves cleansing. Cleansing yourself of the sinful behavior involves separating yourself from the source of the problem. Sometimes you have to cut off relationships, sometimes you have to give up tv shows, but never do you not have to give up something to change your behavior and get back in line with God. Now you have to ask yourself another hard question.
Are you too proud to give up what tears you away from God?
There are no excuses that are legitimate for hanging onto something that is negatively affecting you. The only reason you would hang onto it is because you are too proud to admit it’s an issue.
However, there is no way to get back in line with God unless you remove what it taking up the space supposed to be given to Him. Are you willing to take the difficult step? It won’t be easy to cut off what you think you need but it’s essential to take the hard step.
No one can do this for you. You have to do it yourself. I hope that you are willing to do this. Be brave.
